Sleep Apnea: Snooze at the Right Time

PITTSBURGH, Pa. (Ivanhoe Newswire) – As many as 18 million Americans suffer from sleep apnea. It causes them to repeatedly stop breathing during sleep, leading to daytime fatigue and an increased risk of heart attack, stroke, and high blood pressure. Now, help is on the way.

Every night for five years, Kathy Gaberson donned a facemask — connected to hoses and compressed air. This continuous positive airway pressure machine, or CPAP, was the best treatment available for Gaberson’s sleep apnea, which had been steadily wrecking her health.

“I was driving my car locally and stopped at a stop sign and fell asleep at the stop sign,” Gaberson told Ivanhoe.

“The device itself is a pacemaker-like device that is placed just under the skin of the right upper chest,” Ryan Soose, MD, Director, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Division of Sleep Surgery, told Ivanhoe.

The Inspire is connected to an electrode that stimulates the nerve of the tongue, preventing the narrowing of the throat.

“The patient has a remote control to turn it on and off when they want to use it,” Dr. Soose said.

Gaberson felt a slight tingling in her throat when the device turned on, but said the feeling didn’t keep her from getting great sleep for the first time in years.

“I woke up in the morning refreshed,” Gaberson explained.

A study from the New England Journal of Medicine reports that two-thirds of the patients using the upper airway stimulation device had control of their sleep apnea, meaning less daytime sleepiness, improvements in snoring, and better quality of life.

The batteries can last about five to ten years, and there is a simple procedure to replace them when they do run out. MORE.

If this story or any other Ivanhoe story has impacted your life or prompted you or someone you know to seek or change treatments, please let us know by contacting Marjorie Bekaert Thomas, mthomas@ivanhoe.com.